"Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.” Ray Bradbury
So, in my dalliances and tribulations with writing, mainly in MS Word although Scrivener is also my application of choice, I have come across some nifty shortcut keys that are just super handy when writing one's novel. My festive, and hopefully post apocalyptic*, present to you is a table I have drawn up with all the best shortcuts and what they really do. Not what the handbooks say. What they actually to the best of my knowledge meet to writers.
I've ordered them into groups, they travel in packs you see, beginning with the most refined of the groups and moving on to include the shakers (who are a fierce tribe of shortcuts from the north), the sneakers (as in, they sneak), and those ever graceful seekers. So! Onwards! Down that cup of warm and spicy beverage, don the tinsel necklace, and straighten your christmas jumper because here we go.
| Group | Shortcuttings | What does it do |
|---|---|---|
| The Movers | Ctrl + v Ctrl + alt + v Ctrl + x | Pasta-ing words from other sources, normally WIPs, sometimes emails, sometimes LOLCATS, often things written down in between the lines of something else. Fancy pants paste. For all your fancy needs. This one cuts. Press with caution. Danger abound! Anything with x in it scares me a little bit. |
| The Shakers | Ctrl + Del Ctrl + <- Del <- Ctrl + n | This deletes This also deletes This SOMETIMES deletes** This ALWAYS deletes START OVER. |
| The Sneakers | Ctrl + c Ctrl + alt + m Ctrl + alt + c F4 | This copies excellent wikipedia articles and tumblr posts and witty comments onto your clipboard. I mean... insightful thoughts you wrote... Um, yes. This inserts comments if you are, like me, a little forgetful! I often sneakily remind myself of things with these buttons. Sneak in a fancy copyright symbol oh yeahh. I've only ever used this as a form of procrastination but it was GOOD nonetheless. The repeat whatever I just did okay thanxbai button. |
| The Savers | Ctrl + s Ctrl + z Ctrl + y | Save. SAVE. SAVE IT ALL. Ahhh. OHH GOOODDDD NOOO I DIDN'T MEAN IT. BELAY THAT ORDER. (This comes highly recommended as from me) This command means I totally did mean to undo that last thing. Unbelay that order. |
| The Seekers | Ctrl + f Ctrl + shift + r Ctrl + g | Find me a name/place/what did I call the cat again option The have I hit 20k yet thermometer Find a page/bookmark/breadcrumb trail that I previously marked out with the intention of coming back later (I'll be honest, I don't plan enough for this one to ever come into play) |
| The Essentials | F5 Ctrl + alt + - Ctrl + alt + Num + Ctrl + alt + del | Refresh it. REFRESHHH. The em dash Create a new shortcut. ABORT! RED ALERT. Report to my ready-room immediately. |
*it can still be a gift during the apocalypse comes I don't know why I said that.
** as far as I can tell.
Do you have any super useful keys I've missed out? What's your favourite? I'm a great advocate of Ctrl + z simply because I am a BOLD deleter of things and sometimes that turns out to be the worst idea I ever had ever, beating the time I stuck my pinky in a pencil sharpener hands down.
It looks like Ctrl is The Key to keep handy!! It mixes with everything and does all sorts - depending on its mood of course!! Yay!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas Mia! Take care
x
I've started using some of these thanks to a crappy job I had earlier this year. So, some benefit to said crappy job did in fact exist.
ReplyDeleteCtrl N starts you over?? But why do they put them so close together?? It should be more like Ctrl *tap the 8 key 12 times* for it to work!!
ReplyDeleteAnd now that I know about it, I will undoubtably hit it soon. :)
erica